In possibly a first, commuters at Ang Mo Kio MRT station were surprised to see PM Lee Hsien Loong giving out PAP fliers to residents at 7.30 am yesterday (3 Sep), coinciding with the morning rush hour.
Me Lee was accompanied by his wife Ho Ching, other Ang Mo Kio GRC candidates and the media.
Mr Lee and his team mates are conducting their walkabouts very seriously this time. In the past, he would hardly do such a thing as distributing fliers at an MRT station.
It’s not known what has driven him to suddenly do this.
However, his presence caused inconvenience to commuters and staff at the station. As the crowd around him swelled, SMRT staff had to ask Public Transport Security Command officers to come and help manage the build-up.
The Public Transport Security Command is a specialised transit police unit of the Singapore Police Force. It was first established as a unit of the Special Operations Command under the name Police MRT Unit in 2005 in response to the need for greater security concerns in public transport operations in Singapore as a result of global security issues. From 15 August 2009, the unit was upgraded into an independent unit and took its present name.
Housewife Ang Min Kee, 76, told the media, “Must take photo. Rare chance.”
Mr Lee continued his campaigning into the evening, visiting Hougang Point’s festive market and Sheng Siong supermarket in Jalan Kayu.
Lee: ‘Character is crucial’
During a PAP rally on Wednesday (2 Sep), Mr Lee said that in politics, one’s heart has to be in the right place and character is crucial.
He took the opportunity to attack the Opposition:
Take a look at the people they have, the people we have, and ask: ‘What sort of people are you? What do you represent? Is your heart really with me?
Sometimes we have candidates with flawed characters – people who should never be in politics. But they just sweep this aside, they hope that after some years, slowly it will disappear into the distance, forgotten. Then they say, ‘We look forward! Please don’t look behind, you’ll find my black tail.
“I think that’s very dangerous. We have to look behind. Whose tail is that one? Why is it there? How do you explain? Have you really changed?”
He also took a swipe at WP on the AHPETC saga:
The other thing which can happen is, when people do something wrong and they don’t fix it, they don’t admit it, they pretend it doesn’t exist, they explain why it’s not a problem. Then sometimes they say, ‘Well I haven’t been sent to jail … so everything is okay’.
If this is the standard we set for politicians, then I think Singapore is in very serious trouble. We must have high standards for politics. Do you care? Are you doing the right thing? Are you doing your best? Are you serving Singapore well?
When the PAP recruits its candidates, said Mr Lee, the party does not just read their CVs but it assesses their “heart”.
The party talks to their friends and colleagues, and gets feedback from the ground, he said. “We at PAP will give you the best team we can. We will fight for you, we will act for you, we will work for you,” he added.
However, not all “hearts” can be assessed properly, it seems. For example, the heart of former Punggol East PAP MP Michael Palmer was clearly with a female staff working in People’s Association. Apparently, it’s hard for Mr Lee to know this, even after talking to Mr Palmer’s friends and colleagues, and getting feedback from the ground.
What do you think?
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